This invention relates in general to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing a data input interface for a hand-held computing system. More particularly this invention relates to providing an adaptive auto-scrolling merge for automatically accepting pen-based input data into a hand-held or palm sized computer and placing the input data onto a desired line.
Pen input based computing systems are becoming increasingly prevalent with the creation of hand-held computing systems. When a user enters data into a pen input based computing system, typically the hand-held computer operates in one of a number of input operating modes. These operating modes may include an ink pen input mode, a text input mode, and a data item selection mode.
When the hand-held computer is operating in the ink pen input mode, the user creates pen strokes on a display when creating data items within a window on the hand-held computer. These pen strokes correspond to the use of an ink pen that places marks on a sheet of paper when a user makes the pen strokes. The difference between a hand-held computer and a sheet of paper is the fact that the ink is electronically created, and thus moveable, on a hand-held computer display.
Computing systems that accept input from users typically accept data items to be inserted into a window that is displayed by the computer. The window displays a portion of the entire document with the window permitting the displayed portion to be scrolled to any position to permit a user to view all parts of the document. When a user is inserting data items at the bottom of the window, computing systems may automatically scroll the displayed portion of the window when data has been added to the last line of the window. This scroll operation creates additional empty lines at the end of the document that are now displayed within the window to provide the user with an area to continue to insert additional data if desired.
Pen based systems, unlike keyboard based input systems, do not use a cursor located at an insertion point to know where a user wants new data items to be inserted. Instead, the new data items are inserted into the document at the location corresponding to the place within the window in which the user drew the pen strokes used to create the data item. This procedure works well except when a user attempts to insert additional data items onto the last line of a window following the insertion of previous data item on the last line. The insertion of the previous data item onto the last line may cause the window to perform an auto-scroll operation. The auto-scroll operation thus moves the previous last line upward while inserting additional lines at the bottom of the window.
When a user intends to add one or more data items onto the last line of a window after a data item was previously inserted onto the last line of a window, the user may place the pen strokes on the current last line of window to created these new data items whether or not the auto-scroll operation has occurred. This result occurs because the user may not realize that the auto scroll operation has occurred, and thus the xe2x80x9cpaper has moved upwardxe2x80x9d from beneath the pen. This fact causes the user to place the new data item at a location within the window that does not correspond to the user""s intended location. As a result, a user must stop data entry and manually move the data items to the intended location before resuming entering data. These additional steps make a pen-based user interface provided by a hand-held computer difficult and inefficient to use to enter data.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems are solved by providing an adaptive auto-scrolling merge to automatically accept pen-based input data into a pen-based computing system, such as a hand-held or palm sized, computer and to place the input data onto a line of a as intended by the user. The user of a pen input based computing system, such as a hand-held computer, does not need to stop data entry and manually move the data items to the intended location before resuming entering data following the occurrence of an auto-scroll operation within the displayed window. This feature will improve the user efficiency in operating the pen input based computing system.
One aspect of the present invention is a method for providing an adaptive auto-scrolling merge to automatically accept pen-based input data into a hand-held or palm sized computer. The method detects the occurrence of an auto-scroll operation of a display window following the insertion of a first data item within a first last line of the display window. Also the method detects the insertion of a second data item following the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation, and determines whether the second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last line. The method then merges the second data item with the first data item within the first last line of the display if the second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last line.
Another aspect of the present invention is a computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a set of computer instructions in a computer process for providing an adaptive auto-scrolling merge to automatically accept pen-based input data into a hand-held or palm sized computer. The computer process detects the occurrence of an auto-scroll operation of a display window following the insertion of a first data item within a first last line of the display window. It also detects the insertion of a second data item following the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation. The computer process determines whether the second data item was inserted within a second last line of the window display, and whether the second data item was inserted within a predefined period of time from the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation If the second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last lines the computer process merges the second data item with the first data item within the first last line of the display. The second last line of the window display corresponds to the current last line of the window display following the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation, The first last line of the window display corresponds to the last line of the window display before the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation. The second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last line of the window display if the second data item is inserted within the second last line of the display within the predefined period of time following the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for providing an adaptive auto-scrolling merge to automatically accept pen-based input data into a window display on a hand-held computer. The apparatus has a programmable processor, a pen-based display for automatically accept pen-based input data into the apparatus, and a user interface module for providing a pen-based data input interface to the apparatus. An auto-scrolling and merge module detects the occurrence of an auto-scroll operation of a display window following the insertion of a first data item within a first last line of the display window. A data item input module detects the insertion of a second data item following the occurrence of the auto-scroll operation. An auto-scroll and merge control module determines whether the second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last line, and a data item merge module merges the second data item with the first data item within the first last line of the display if the second data item was intended to be inserted within the first last line.
These and various other features as well as advantages, which characterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.